Tag Archives: wordpress

I finally made the switch from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress. It was a fair bit of work (mostly because I like to make things difficult for myself), but now that it’s all done, I’m very happy with it.

Please re-subscribe to the new Feedburner feed (on the right) and update your links if I happen to be on your blogroll.

There were a few hiccups when I brought my blog over here. I lost a few comments (luckily they were mostly my own comments and I could recreate them), and I also had to migrate a few posts over a couple of times, so I’m sorry if I’ve spammed anyone with pingbacks. If you notice anything funny with the site please let me know.

A big thank-you to Vidyala who made my banner and a lovely avatar image of Jasyla.

I’ve got a couple posts in the works: lessons I learned while migrating my blog as well as a raid frame showdown. There’s a new UI post lurking around in my brain, but those take so long.

Well, I did it. I got a host, registered a domain and started my new blog on WordPress. I think I must have looked at 1000 themes yesterday and I can’t find one that does everything I want (and don’t know how to make them do what I want). I think I’m going to pull my hair out.

I need help. I’m currently in the process of setting up a second blog. This one isn’t going anywhere, but I’ve been spending a lot of time entertaining myself with non-Wow things and I’d like to start writing about movies, books and other video games.

I find myself at the same crossroads I was as when I created this blog. Blogspot or WordPress? Initially, my plan was to create the new blog on WordPress so I could do a thorough comparison of the two and then move them both onto the platform I liked best. Now I’m not so sure (no one can beat a Libra on the indecisiveness front).

In my view, these are the main differences between the two platforms:

Blogspot

WordPress (basic, hosted)

Custom Themes

-Allows you to customize the basic templates
-Allows you to use non-Blogspot templates

-Can only choose from the set of 90 or so WordPress templates
-Only some things are customizable (e.g., headers) unless you want to pay for it

Widgets

-Has a set of plug ins you can use
-Can use 3rd party plug ins

-There seem to be a slightly wider range of basic plug ins, but as far as I can tell, no way to add 3rd party plug ins

Stats

-Google analytics are now included in the Blogger dashboard
-Can also add scripts for 3rd party stats

-Stats available through the dashboard
-Can’t add 3rd party scripts

Ads

-Option to use Adsense and Amazon for monetization

– Not available

Comment Spam

-I have no hard data on this, but in 8 months I haven’t gotten any spam in my comments

– I have seen a number of complaints from WordPress users about comment spam

I find the basic, free WordPress platform a little deficient. When I created this blog I actually made it on both platforms, but when I saw that I couldn’t edit css without paying for it, I went with the Blogspot version.

Now I’m thinking about using self-hosted WordPress. A lot of the blogs I follow have done some really great things with their WordPress blogs, and I want my blog to be pretty too. The problem I’m having is that the free version of WordPress isn’t doing a good job of selling me the self-hosted version.

I’m looking for input from people who have gone from wordpress hosted to self-hosted. Do you like it? How easy is it to customize? Is it worth the hosting costs?